The intent of this two-phase, sequential explanatory mixed methods study was to examine the role teachers' beliefs play when making instructional decisions. The population included in-service teachers representing four Career and Technical Education disciplines located within the commonwealth of Virginia. Using a stratified random sample, 622 teachers were selected for the quantitative strand, and employing a system of four contacts, quantitative data were collected from 292 participants. Dweck's Theories of Intelligence scale assessed the nature of in-service teachers' beliefs about intelligence, and the Epistemic Belief Inventory was used to measure their epistemological beliefs. Finally, the participants rated their use of teacher-centered and student-centered teaching methods. In the second phase, qualitative data were collected from nine participants to further understand how in-service teachers' beliefs are related to the teaching practices they use. The quantitative and qualitative data were combined to determine if the descriptions of teaching method used, beliefs about intelligence, and epistemological beliefs aligned with the outcomes of the quantitative questionnaire. Significant correlations existed between the Theories of Intelligence scale and the Epistemic Belief Inventory. A significant positive relationship existed between the Epistemic Beliefs Inventory and the overall teaching practices score, indicating in-service teachers' advanced epistemological beliefs are related to the use of student-centered teaching practices. A regression analysis indicated that teaching discipline, epistemological beliefs, teaching experience, and highest level of education completed predicted the teaching practices in-service teachers' select. The qualitative data supported the claim that beliefs about intelligence and epistemological beliefs influence teaching practices. Six themes emerged from the qualitative data, and the themes were used as a framework for organizing the findings. The researcher acknowledges that teachers possess a variety of beliefs, and those beliefs influence how teachers teach. The researcher recommends that teacher educators attempt to identify the beliefs pre-service teachers hold, and if modifications of beliefs are needed, facilitate interventions to modify those beliefs. While some have labeled the direct relationship between teacher beliefs and teaching practices as "messy", the evidence indicates the two, are in fact, related. / Ph. D.

In Senegal, in recent years the rural sector has undergone major reforms which are partly due to macroeconomic policy reforms adopted by the Senegalese government. Therefore, all the actors of economic and social development have a common concern and share in promoting rural agriculture (Bernard et al., 2008). Changes observed in the agricultural and rural sector reflect the will of the actors to have a productive, competitive, and sustainable agriculture system in order to ensure food security (International Monetary Fund, 2011). The purpose of the study is to develop a set of recommendations to improve the educational program planning and teaching skills of educators in the extension system by focusing on extension educators' approaches to teaching farmers and cart owners animal welfare practices for proper care of working animals. The extension agents and teachers involved in the animal husbandry and animal extension system in Thies and Bambey served as participants in this study. This descriptive qualitative study connected qualitative data derived from participant interviews, qualitative document analysis, observations of an educational program planning professional development program for state agents and university faculty members in Diourbel and Thies regions, as well as a final focus group to allow participants clarification of preliminary themes found in the data. The findings revealed 11 themes: characteristics of the participants, job expectation and responsibilities, institutional and organizational factors, capacity building and professional development plans, diagnostics of the extension system, regulations and legislations, limited sources of information, limited knowledge and skills technologies, recommendations for utilizing student-centered teaching practices, standard welfare for animal husbandry, recommendation for acceptance and improvement standard animal welfare related to the four research questions which addressed the topics of challenging current teaching methods used in the extension system for other owners of animal species in the animal extension programs, the use of student-centered teaching practices in extension education and university instruction, and the level assistance given to farmers in order to ensure accepted standards of animal welfare working animal and other animal species in the animal husbandry system. / Master of Science in Life Sciences / In Senegal, in recent years the rural sector has undergone major reforms which are partly due to macroeconomic policy reforms adopted by the Senegalese government. Therefore, all the actors of economic and social development have a common concern and share in promoting rural agriculture (Bernard et al., 2008). Changes observed in the agricultural and rural sector reflect the will of the actors to have a productive, competitive, and sustainable agriculture system in order to ensure food security (International Monetary Fund, 2011). The purpose of the study is to develop a set of recommendations to improve the educational program planning and teaching skills of educators in the extension system by focusing on extension educators' approaches to teaching farmers and cart owners animal welfare practices for proper care of working animals. The extension agents and teachers involved in the animal husbandry and animal extension system in Thies and Bambey served as participants in this study. The methodology used for this descriptive qualitative study were interviews, qualitative document analysis, observations of an educational and professional development program planning for state agents and university faculty members in Diourbel and Thies regions, as well as a final focus group to allow participants clarification of preliminary themes found in the data. The data collected from participants were connected to the different used qualitative methods to gather data. The 11 themes found in this study were the characteristics of the participants, job expectation and responsibilities, institutional and organizational factors, capacity building and professional development plans, diagnostics of the extension system, regulations and legislations, limited sources of information, limited knowledge and skills technologies, recommendations for utilizing student-centered teaching practices, standard welfare for animal husbandry, recommendation for acceptance and improvement standard animal welfare related to the four research questions which addressed the topics of challenging current teaching methods used in the extension system for other owners of animal species in the animal extension programs, the use of student-centered teaching practices in extension education and university instruction, and the level assistance given to farmers in order to ensure accepted standards of animal welfare working animal and other animal species in the animal husbandry system.